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{
    "id": 602770,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/602770/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 710,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. A.B. Duale",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 15,
        "legal_name": "Aden Bare Duale",
        "slug": "aden-duale"
    },
    "content": "cumbersome to look for the VAT law, Income Tax law and Excise Duty law. This will give the economy, investors and taxpayers a one-stop legislation that will contain all pieces of tax legislation like the VAT Act, Excise Duty Act and Income Tax Act. The object of this Bill, therefore, is to provide uniform procedures for the promotion of a more consistent, more efficient and more compliant administration of tax law. The other importance of the Bill is to create an infrastructure to facilitate tax compliance by the taxpayers. This Bill also gives the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) an effective and efficient platform for collection of taxes from the citizens. That is the essence and object of the Bill. Let me highlight some provisions of the Bill since Members will have an opportunity to debate the entire Bill. The Bill gives power to the Commissioner of VAT, Commissioner of Domestic Taxes and the Commissioner of Customs to disclose documents, or information, obtained in the course of the administration of tax laws to an authorised officer, a tribunal, a court of law or to the director of the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) for him to give an economic outlook, or to the Auditor-General or the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC). The moment we enact this law, the EACC, the Auditor-General and the Director- General of KEBS will have an opportunity to ask the Commissioner-General of KRA to provide documents and information in as far as the administration of tax laws will be concerned in the country. This Bill provides procedures on how to register or deregister taxpayers. This Bill provides a more efficient procedure on how citizens can obtain Personal Identification Number (PIN). The usage of the PIN is being documented in law for the first time. The procedure for the cancellation of a PIN is also proposed in the Bill. So, all these provisions will facilitate tax collection and compliance. When the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) Government was taking over, KRA was collecting barely Kshs600 billion. Thirteen years down the line, KRA has surpassed the Kshs1 trillion mark. As a country, the way we are proud of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) for protecting our country from external forces, we must be proud of the men and women who collect revenue from taxpayers in order to make the Budget that we pass successful. You can be an independent country, but if you do not have economic independence and you keep begging--- I want to say it here, without fear of contradiction, that 95 per cent of our Budget is funded with resources collected by the men and women working for KRA, and we must thank them. The Income Tax and VAT departments of the KRA do a lot of auditing of financial records of the taxpayers where cases are brought and books of accounts are kept in languages other than English or Kiswahili. This Bill proposes, for the first time in the history of this country, that record keeping of any documents required under a tax law, be either in English or Kiswahili. If a company is based in the Middle East and has a branch here, the chances are that its books will be in Arabic, French, Spanish, or in vernacular. The Tax Procedures Bill that we are going to enact says that for any auditing firm to audit the financial records of any taxpayer, the language will be English or Kiswahili. The unit of currency in any document shall be in Kenyan shillings for ease of tax administration. There are many multinational companies and Kenyan companies that do business out of the country with other people. They do business in foreign currencies, but in order to create a procedure, the unit of currency in any document must be in Kenya shillings. This is to make tax administration easy. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}